Politics Plus

If you know anything about Project 2025, you should be worried. This vile plan that right-wingers would put into motion if the GOP regains the Oval Office is horror piled upon horror. The more I read about this madness, the more I realize it slithered out of the most sordid depths of the pit of pure evil. This coalition of some 75 partner organizations, led by the ultra-conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, is preparing for the next conservative administration with plans that will totally shred the Constitution, the very heart and soul of this country. They will undo nearly a quarter of a millennium of progress.

The Project involves invoking the Insurrection Act, which would put the Orange Ogre in charge of the military and the police. Since many police departments in this country are already militarized, and since racism and other forms of bigotry run rampant in U.S. constabularies, this will make life a lot worse for many marginalized segments of the population. What’s even worse, the Project doesn’t depend entirely on the Mango Menace – any ol’ Republicanazi will do.

T-Rump claims that he’ll be dictator for only one day. One day my ass. Give him a millimeter, he’ll take an entire kilometer. The Project calls for an executive branch with essentially unlimited power and zero accountability to Congress, or the public. It seeks to ban pornography – and its definition of porn is extremely broad, encompassing ANY discussion of gender, abortion, or sexual identity that is not straight. They want the Executive Branch to dominate without any checks or balances. If that isn’t fascism, what is?

Project 2025 has four goals: 1) Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect children, 2) Dismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people, 3) Defend our nation’s sovereignty, borders and bounty against global threats, and 4) Secure our god-given individual right to enjoy the “blessings of liberty.” I can here the snickering from here. The only family they acknowledge is the jejune Leave It to Beaver nuclear family in which Dad works and Mom stays home as a “domestic goddess.” Dismantling the “administrative state” means getting rid of numerous necessary regulations and departments that keep our air and water clean, protect consumers from fraud, and ensure the reasonable purity of our food and medicine.

The noted supporters include Donald Devine, best known as Ronald Reagan’s “terrible swift sword” because he was always eager to slash spending (except on defense, of course); Stephen Moore, Heritage Foundation distinguished fellow and Faux News contributor; and Peter Navarro, one of the few people in tRump’s inner circle who didn’t get fired.

It involves dismantling the FBI and Homeland Security. Funny, seems to me that these reich-wing bugnuts ought to LOVE Homeland Security. It calls for eliminating the Department of Education (Make America Ignorant Again) and the Department of Commerce (put the corporate Fat Cats in charge). It would also put POTUS in direct charge of the Department of Justice, among other departments. How could that NOT be a dick(tator) move? There is a reason why the U.S. Constitution has built-in checks and balances to prevent any one person from gaining too much power.

Women will lose all of the rights they have fought for so fiercely over more than a century. Not only will abortion be totally illegal, womb-bearers will have to report their pregnancies. What happens if a pregnancy ends in a miscarriage or stillbirth? Will the mother be charged with murder? Imagine how swiftly prisons will fill with women who were innocent victims of rotten luck. Imagine what their partners and their children will suffer.

LGBTQ people will have to hide in the closet once more. POCs will have little recourse to fight the inevitable tsunami of racism that the Project will set into motion. Remember what I wrote earlier about the police? When cops and soldiers are practically identical, just imagine what police will do to non-whites whom they arrest, and to non-white neighborhoods. (On the other hand, don’t – it would be serious nightmare fuel.) Hate crimes will be not just legal, but the law.

Hitler is dancing in Hell.

You can read the entirety of Project 2025 here – that is, if you want to. It runs for approximately 950 pages, so unless you are into marathon reading you probably want to read only a segment here and a segment there.

If this doesn’t scare the pants off you, either you’re not paying attention, or you support this insanity.

Who is Mike Johnson, the new Speaker of the House? Who is this man, who sits two heartbeats away from the Oval Office?

What we do know about him: He is an anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ, anti-POC, anti-contraception, anti-vax, anti-woman, pro-theocracy bugnut who believes that the perfectly fair 2020 election was rigged and wants to give Big Business even more tax breaks. He was an aggressive architect of the effort to overturn the most recent Presidential election results – he signed onto an ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit that was an effort to invalidate votes from some battleground states where Biden won. He regards Social Security as a Ponzi scheme, and wants to undermine that program, as well as Medicare and Medicaid. He blames the “human heart” on all the gun violence in the USA. He voted against sending assistance to the Ukrainians – twice.

Maybe the GQP selected him because of his mild-mannered nerdy appearance. Even his name sounds generic. Also, he doesn’t have the name-recognition baggage that many of the other candidates for Speaker did. However, as the ancient saw goes, looks can be deceiving. Peek beneath sheep’s clothing and you may find a ravening wolf. He has been described as “Jim Jordan with a jacket and a smile.” The main reason he was picked, no doubt, is because his lips are firmly attached to tRump’s fat rear end.

He says that his faith “informs everything I do.” James Madison quoted, way back in the 18th century, “There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermeddle with religion. Its least interference with it would be a most flagrant usurpation.” We have seen what happens when government and religion intermingle, and the results are never pretty. It has led to pogroms and literal witch hunts, oppression of women and racial/ethnic minorities, persecution of non-binary people and those who follow the “wrong” religion.

In an interview on Real America’s Voice, Matt Gaetz asserted that the MAGA movement is ascendent, and making Johnson Speaker of the House shows “where the power in the Republican Party truly lies.” Mike Johnson is just another puppet of tRump, who will maintain TFG’s power in our government and over Republicans. Currently there are no moderate Republicans – they are all MAGA extremists and wack jobs. A while ago I wrote an essay titled “R.I.P. GOP” about how the Republicans have degenerated into a cult of personality, shamelessly worshipping the Golden Calf – or, rather, the Orange Ogre.

Then there is the often-replayed incident when a reporter asks Johnson about the attempt to overturn the 2020 election, and a horde of Republicans boo and one yells “Shut up!” like a spoiled infant. The same reporter gets a similar negative response when asking about aid for Israel and Ukraine.

Johnson believes that gay marriage is “the dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy that could doom even the strongest republic,” and that SCOTUS’ rulings upholding separation of church from state go against Scripture. He wants to institute national bans on abortion and gay sex. In an interview with Fox News, he said “I am a Bible-believing Christian. Someone asked me today in the media, they said, ‘It’s curious, people are curious. What does Mike Johnson think about any issue under the sun?’ I said, ‘Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it – that’s my worldview.’ That’s what I believe and so I make no apologies for it.”

If that doesn’t scare the pants off you, what will?

And it gets better – or worse. He claims that mass shootings are the result of no-fault divorce laws, teaching evolution in schools, and the counterculture of the 1960s. He blames Roe v Wade for removing “able-bodied workers” from the economy to provide for Social Security. Really? How are those “able-bodied” workers supposed to support social programs when they have a hard time finding work since so many jobs have gone overseas or been automated – or when they’re in prison, earning laughable excuses for wages doing what amounts to slave labor? You want kids to grow up to support you, then you better make sure they can support you when they grow up.

By ousting Kevin McCarthy but getting Mike Johnson, this country may have gone from the frying pan into the fire. Fortunately, US registered voters have a little over 12 months to get organized and give the House a blue majority again.

What the f#*% is wrong with the United States?

Sometimes it seems as though the English language needs some new cuss words since the F-bomb gets used so much it’s starting to lose its impact. (To be polite I did censor it in this essay, though.)

First – this country seems to be waging war against the homeless and the poor. Gentrification is destroying affordable housing, while greedy companies are snapping up homes for sale and offering them for rent. Cities are passing ordnances against feeding the homeless. I wrote before about how this country manhandles the unhoused, so I won’t go over that ground again.

WHAT THE F#*%?

Second – recently the United Nations voted on whether or not food is a human right. The wonderful US of A was the only country to vote that food is not a human right.

Yep, you read that right – the USA was the ONLY COUNTRY that voted food is not a human right. Not Russia, not North Korea, not China, not some third world developing country, but the country that should be the First World poster child voted that people do not have the right to eat. What a country – we force womb-bearers of every age to give birth, but don’t believe in feeding anybody.

WHAT THE F#*%?

Third – Patrick Braxton, the duly elected Mayor of Newbern, AL, is not being allowed to serve. He ran properly, dotting all his i’s and crossing all his t’s, to be Mayor of a town that is 85% African-American. The town had not seen a proper election for six decades, so Braxton submitted all of the necessary paperwork, and being the only one to do so he became Mayor. However, the town’s white minority (sound like a certain country?) Is determined to keep Braxton out of City Hall.

WHAT THE F#*%?

Fourth – In Cedar Glen, CA, Lauri Carleton, owner of the Mag.pi shop, was shot and killed for displaying the rainbow Pride flag. Police gunned down the suspect, but the hate remains. Carleton is likely to be called a martyr, but extreme right wingers could label her killer a martyr, also.

It’s not safe to display a flag that shows your support for non-binary people? What’s next – shooting somebody for having a “Black Lives Matter” sign in his/her front yard? One could go on and on and on about how vicious and violent right-wing bugnuts are. The January 6th putsch is a very obvious example – and there are plenty more. Plenty more.

WHAT THE ACTUAL F#*%?

Finally – When tRump went to the Fulton County Jail to face his indictments in Georgia, dozens of supporters lined the street. Already some wack jobs are calling for violence if TFG is convicted of any of the charges brought against him. His glowering mug shot has become a bloody shirt for the extreme right.

In several articles I have read that the next civil war in this country may not involve secession, but be individual actions by small groups committing acts of terror. The war may be more like civil wars in other countries, pitting neighbor against neighbor, tearing families apart, with no definable boundaries between This Side and That Side. It will be ragtag rebels against the Feds. Both sides will claim to be the Good Guys, while both sides behave like Bad Guys.

We can still turn this country around and set it back on the path towards civilization, but we have to watch out for the nut jobs who have funny ideas about what constitutes real civilization.

“The Gulf Stream is about to collapse!” the headlines scream. “It could happen as early as 2025! Total chaos is just around the corner!”

Or is it?

Face it – news people relish sensationalistic headlines, because as the old saw goes, if it bleeds, it leads. Any story that can generate click-bait headlines gets more attention. I have shared stories like this with my extensive mailing list to which I send articles and petitions, although I sometimes caution people to take such with a grain of salt or two.

Now cooler heads are speaking out. “Not so fast!” they declare. Yes, the Gulf Stream may collapse, but not for a few decades.

True, our planet is getting hotter, and the evidence points strongly to human actions as the main cause. However, that does not mean we are headed straight for Doomsday. We could be en route to complete societal collapse as weather patterns shift, leading to droughts, crop failures, famines, mass refugee migrations, disease and war. Thus, it can’t hurt to prepare for the worst. On the other hand, we shouldn’t get “Debbie Downer” syndrome and moan there is nothing we can do, we’re going to be back to troglodytes in a generation. We still have hope to curtail climate change and reduce its worst effects. We cannot stop the planet from warming – we have to deal with what this will bring about. But we can each do our little bit.

Climate change is prompting ice caps and glaciers to melt faster. More cold freshwater in the northern Atlantic slows down the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), and this weakens the gulf stream. But will it suddenly shut down in 2025? Probably not. Computer models may have suggested a cessation or at least a great weakening of the stream as early as 2025, but computer models are just that – models. They can give indications and reveal trends, but they are not always perfect or even accurate predictors of what will come.

Evidence from satellites suggests that the gulf stream has been weakening since the early 1990s, and it could shift south. Even if it does not turn off in 2025, even if it continues its merry way well into the 21st century, a weaker gulf stream means colder winters in northeastern North America and northwestern Europe. We will still see more and stronger hurricanes, as well as greater weather extremes, expanding deserts, wet areas getting wetter and dry areas getting drier. Climate change is already affecting weather patterns, and could have some affects we have not anticipated. Changes in ocean currents can be devastating to large swaths of land, if not entire continents.

However, we should not react with fear and panic, but preparation. We also shouldn’t take too seriously the Doomsday Dons hollering about an imminent collapse of the gulf stream, or the AMOC, though there is plenty of compelling evidence they are both getting weaker. We don’t fully understand the complexity of ocean currents, or weather, or climate. We do, however, know the planet is getting hotter, and that human action is causing this or exacerbating a natural trend. We need to lean on our elected officials to do more to curb our contribution to climate change, as well as prepare for the troubles it will bring.